7/05/2008

NAIROBI (AFP) - A deadly cocktail of calamities -- including war, drought and rising prices -- is engulfing the Horn of Africa, threatening its children with suffering of disastrous proportions, the UN's Children Fund warned Wednesday.

"A lethal mix of drought, expanding conflict, rising food and energy prices, disease, and high poverty is pushing children and their families in the Greater Horn of Africa to the brink of disaster," UNICEF said in a statement.

"Ethiopia and Somalia are the worst affected, but parts of Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda show ominously similar signs," it added.

"The time to act is now, to save children's lives," Per Engebak, UNICEF's regional director for East and Southern Africa, said in the statement.